Information on the British Museum Please

I am taking dd and her friend (age 8) to the British Museum this weekend. We have been quite a lot before, but always to a special family event.

This time there is nothing family oriented going on. I know there are always backpack activities etc. However I was considering the Great Court Audio Tour - Stephen Fry on bodies beasts and board games. As it costs ?3.50 a pop (shock, horror, paying for a museum) I'd quite like to see if anyone has any experience of it.

We are hoping to "do" the British Museum in when we come to London October half term. In the past we've tried to squash it into a packed itinerary, and all just collapsed exhausted in the Great Court and not got any further.

DS1 is doing Egyptians next year, and ds2 Greeks: so they should enjoy it.

I've taken them to the Ashmolean in Oxford before, but just found it terribly dry and inaccessible. Is the British Museum better?

We actually had a disastrous visit to the BM about 4 years ago at the very end of a frenetic trip to London, when we were all utterly exhausted and really should have known better than to try and squeeze in another activity! We basically all collapsed without seeing anything except the great court, and ds1 had a paddy strop.

So this year we have allocated an entire day to the BM if we want, and I'm determined to make it a success.